Advice on making detailed towns for RP?

[Jasper_Winters]

Hello, first post!
Ok, so I'm fairly new to DMing, and I've read quite a few threads on this forum before, but just made an account a few minutes ago. My friends and I have been playing for quite a few months by now. I own the PHB, DM Guide, MM, Eberron Campaign Setting, as well as a few other books.
I'd like some advice on creating small towns with NPCs whose main purpose is for RPing. We ran one module which had a very detailed town with well described NPC personalities and details, and the group really enjoyed it - just running around and talking to people, getting in tavern brawls, etc.. I've taken a stab or two at creating a similarly interesting town, but haven't quite succeeded yet. Any help would be much appreciated.

[erikun]

Don't be overly concerned about the town map at first. Even if you do make a map, it wouldn't be impossible for a new house to spring up or a business to move within a few weeks.

Consider who the characters are likely to interact with, and make personalities for them. Captain of the Guard? Yeah, probably. Head of the local church? Sure. How about the merchant, the weaponsmith, and the local wizard-scriber?

After that, try expanding things from there (maybe one of the town guards doesn't like the captain?) and adding the occasional random person you think up. Feel free to "re-use" personalities from previous PCs or NPCs, especially if your players haven't seen them before.

[Knaight]

Come up with a basic over structure, and wing it from there, embellishing as needed. Also, ignore everything the DMG has to say, its a collection of terrible advice, punctuated with useful mechanics.

[Talentless]

Hello, first post!
Ok, so I'm fairly new to DMing, and I've read quite a few threads on this forum before, but just made an account a few minutes ago. My friends and I have been playing for quite a few months by now. I own the PHB, DM Guide, MM, Eberron Campaign Setting, as well as a few other books.
I'd like some advice on creating small towns with NPCs whose main purpose is for RPing. We ran one module which had a very detailed town with well described NPC personalities and details, and the group really enjoyed it - just running around and talking to people, getting in tavern brawls, etc.. I've taken a stab or two at creating a similarly interesting town, but haven't quite succeeded yet. Any help would be much appreciated.

Well, first off, your title really seems to clash with what you're asking for, at least with me. Maybe you should clear that up?

As for how to make interesting towns, especially with an RP focus, is to not worry about class levels and mechanics at the start.

Start with the NPC's position, such as Mayor, Guard Captain, Retired Knight, etc.

Then flesh out their personalities, how they act, what they like, what they dislike, what would annoy them, what would flatter them, and more.

Then work out a tentative schedule of likely tasks that they would do if the PCs don't cause any screwy issues like they are prone to.

Then, and only then, do you worry about what classes you would give the characters, what feats, and what skills that would fit with their job and personality you have created.


Now that the basics of RP NPC creation is out of the way, on to my recommendations.

1) Friends don't introduce friends to TVtropes, but in this case, it is semi-justified. But if you are out of ideas for characters, use it, look up character archetypes tropes, then figure out if you want the characters to fit the trope, or avert it, or any other differences you want.

2) NEVER and i mean NEVER break with the personality of the character when interacting with the party, you want them to be memorable, but you don't want them to be remembered as the LG town healer who snapped and murdered everyone for no damn reason(Unless its for a plot hook of some kind, then its cliche, but acceptable).

3) Arguably the most important, Know your players. You want to make memorable characters? You need to tailor them to your players. The best most amazingly written backstory does nothing for the group of players that just wants to dungeon dive and kill things. While for the RP backstory interested, a simple sentence like "I learned to fight by killing things" just doesn't fly.

[Saintheart]

Try the book Cityscape. Lots of pretty fluff and ideas in there. :smallcool:

[Amphetryon]

Hello, first post!
Ok, so I'm fairly new to DMing, and I've read quite a few threads on this forum before, but just made an account a few minutes ago. My friends and I have been playing for quite a few months by now. I own the PHB, DM Guide, MM, Eberron Campaign Setting, as well as a few other books.
I'd like some advice on creating small towns with NPCs whose main purpose is for RPing. We ran one module which had a very detailed town with well described NPC personalities and details, and the group really enjoyed it - just running around and talking to people, getting in tavern brawls, etc.. I've taken a stab or two at creating a similarly interesting town, but haven't quite succeeded yet. Any help would be much appreciated.
Welcome to GitP, Jasper.

One thing I try (keyword, try) is to design the city based on its function. A trading city will have wide-open thoroughfares and relatively friendly, open people along with a vibrant underworld presence and active criminal element. Cities built as defensive bastions will be heavily walled, with narrow streets laid out in a logical but not intuitive pattern. People will be distrustful of outsiders, and the criminal element will be hard to locate.

[Psyren]

Come up with a basic over structure, and wing it from there, embellishing as needed. Also, ignore everything the DMG has to say, its a collection of terrible advice, punctuated with useful mechanics.

DMG2, on the other hand, is pretty badass. Cityscape has nice stuff too.

[Knaight]

DMG2, on the other hand, is pretty badass. Cityscape has nice stuff too.

Cityscape is pretty cool. DMG2...again there are useful mechanics. There is also advice along the lines of "episodic adventures are good because they make railroading easier", so...yeah.

[Kurgan]

Come up with a basic over structure, and wing it from there, embellishing as needed. Also, ignore everything the DMG has to say, its a collection of terrible advice, punctuated with useful mechanics.

This, this, a thousand times this. Do not go into too much detail on each and every person who lives in the village, town, or city. Too much work for you for little payoff.

Instead, flesh out a handful of npcs, like the others suggested, and a handful of personalities after that.

Then you just need some names to flesh them out (and to avoid awkward pauses as you try to think up a name). I'd suggest making a list of names, 50 should suffice (really, should be more than enough for awhile), as unless the players ask each and every person in the village their name, you will only need about a third of that. Then remember that some names are more common than others. For example, you might have Tom the Miller, Tom the Shepherd, and Tom the Smith all in one town.

It probably won't come up, but you might want to think of how second names go with the town/area as well. Is it a family name? Do people get their name based of of their father (Tom, son of Tom would be Tom Tomson for example), their mother (Tom son of Margaret: Tom Margaretson)? Probably won't be necessary, but you never know.

[Kol Korran]

the playgrounders have already given good advice, so i'll try not to repeat them and add a bit of my own advice:

- it's important not just to make personalities of individual NPCs, but also the Interactions between NPCs. this turns them from a bunch of people that happen to be in the same place to an actual community. Japer's sons work for the blacksmith. Jaela is the most wanted girl in town and the sone of the mayor, the baker and the merchant are courting her. The priestess doesn't like the gnome librarian. she think he is up to something. plus- who trusts gnomes? and so on.

- if at all possible, try to avoidthe "generic" towm. as has been mentioned before, one way of doing this is by building a town according to it;'s function- "merchhant hub? fishing village? mining? and so on. but you can also give the town it's own unique feel by various other ways- the town resides in the shadow of the Ever dark mountain (forgive the lame name) and all the town's people stay in doors at night, where whispers and shadows are said to walk the streets. this coould affect the town demeanor in many ways. or maybe it is the starting point of many succesful adventurers, and most of the town peiople are hearty, daring and so on. (each also has his own theory why this happens, from the town's water, to worhsiping a small local deity, to buying "these" special acorns and so on) or the town might be on the verge of Centaur territory, trading with the big folks, having larger buildings, and wider streets, and peppering horse linog into their speech

- have 1-3 local interest points. think ofthem as minor-medium tourists attractions. an alter to the luck goddess, a fountain that can wash away sins. a bakery who has AMaZING bread but won't reveal it's secrets. a small halfling gypsy family with a seer that speaks in riddles, and so on. just some things to add flavor to the place.

[B!shop]

Another advice I could add to the ones already given to you is to think about the town development.

Think about the age of the town.
Is it a new town or an old one?
If new, why was it founded? (a new resource found near, a good place for rest on a traderoute, etc)
Is it growing larger or losing inhabitants?
What could be the next future of the town? (a minor lord will be appointed to rule the town, a new bardic college is under construction)

Also, I will recommend you to take notes of all of this, because - as every DM could confirm - players tend to skip DM-prepared locations :D

[Thurbane]

DMG2, on the other hand, is pretty badass. Cityscape has nice stuff too.
The DMG 2 chapter on Saltmarsh is awesome. An entire, semi-detailed town, with enough gaps to fill with your own inventions. I also have a lot of nostalgia for Saltmarsh, from playing the 1E modules set there (Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater and The Final Enemy, although I only ever played the first one through).

[Jasper_Winters]

Wow! Tons of responses! Thanks!

Well, first off, your title really seems to clash with what you're asking for, at least with me. Maybe you should clear that up?
Ok, I'll try to amend that. Thanks for pointing that out.


This, this, a thousand times this. Do not go into too much detail on each and every person who lives in the village, town, or city. Too much work for you for little payoff.
Definitely. I've made this mistake many times before :smallsmile:.


it's important not just to make personalities of individual NPCs, but also the Interactions between NPCs. this turns them from a bunch of people that happen to be in the same place to an actual community.
Very good point. I think this is one of the things that made the module I mentioned great, and also one of the things which I neglected when attempting to make my own town.


have 1-3 local interest points.
Another great point.


...design the city based on its function.
I actually hadn't thought about that before, which seems pretty obvious in retrospect. I'll definitely incorporate that in the towns I make. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make two towns based on the same industry economically and occupationally different? For some industries, I have a few ideas of what to do (for example, two different mining communities could mine different ores, one group of miners could be oppressed, etc.) but for others, I can't think of how to vary them (For example, how could I make two distinct lumberjack communities?).

Thank you all for the advice. This will certainly help me out:smallbiggrin:.

[Knaight]

(For example, how could I make two distinct lumberjack communities?).

Vary log transport. If one uses a sluice that lets them float logs down a river, and another uses elephants, the non lumberjacks will have different roles. Not to mention different attitudes towards animals (particularly elephants) in both, different outlying communities as implied by the terrain, so on and so forth.

Actually, go download Synapse. The system has a civilization building tool that influences the psychology of those in the civilization, which takes into account everything from production to geography to power bases to religion.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Here's another piece of sound advice from a veteran sandbox GM...

Don't go into details unless the players go there.

Seriously. You can have the majority of the town be in a Schrodinger's Indeterminate State, because the players never see it, never interact with it, and never ask about it... you never have to come up with it.

So you never have to come up with Sam, the town Blacksmith, until the party explicitly asks "Hey, is there a Blacksmith in town?". And you flesh him out to the extent the party involves themselves. If they never look him up, then you never have to describe him, never have to describe his shop, or even where it is, unless they ask about it.

This is great if you're an 'improv' GM, but there's one thing you absolutely MUST do if this is the route you go:

Write down every detail you give your players. Make notes, and as the NPC's get fleshed out, write them down.

If the players have never met Joe the Barkeep before, then calling him a blonde, when in your notes he was supposed to have brown hair, is not a problem. They never knew he was supposed to have brown hair, so it doesn't matter. Now he's blonde.

However, if they come across Joe the Barkeep again, and suddenly he's got brown hair, you could have a real problem on your hands. Things like "How did he go from blonde to brown", and conspiracy theories will start to spread like wildfire. "You're not Joe! You're an imposter! In fact, you're a plant from the BBEG! AVAUNT YE!"

So, if you give details, write them down. But you don't need to predefine them before hand.

[big teej]

However, if they come across Joe the Barkeep again, and suddenly he's got brown hair, you could have a real problem on your hands. Things like "How did he go from blonde to brown", and conspiracy theories will start to spread like wildfire. "You're not Joe! You're an imposter! In fact, you're a plant from the BBEG! AVAUNT YE!"


just once I wish my players would pick up on things like this when I make a mistake. :smalltongue:

I'd die of laughter if this happened while I DM'd

[Downysole]

Write down every detail you give your players. Make notes, and as the NPC's get fleshed out, write them down.



This is exactly the best tool that has ever helped me out as a DM. I ran a game for 4 years, and we've taken a 2-year break while others DM. I've been beefing up an overarching story and getting ready for the characters to re-enter the world I created.

The first thing I did is to get the characters back in character by giving them a chance to have gained XP in the interim while practicing my DM skills with a throwaway adventure.

The second thing I did was to read my old notes so that I can remember who the key players are and all the textures that I created years ago. Remember, it's been 6 years since I first fleshed out NPCs to the players. I don't remember this stuff. I doubt they will, but it adds a LOT to the campaign when you describe an NPC to the group and one of them says "OH YEAH! I know that guy!"